


Nothing else but starlight

by Dissenter



Category: Darker Than Black, Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, Child Soldiers, Depression, F/M, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Recovery, Suicidal Thoughts, Trauma, the kindness of strangers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:33:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24207502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dissenter/pseuds/Dissenter
Summary: In the aftermath of the Hell's gate incident Hei and Yin take shelter in a dojo on the outskirts of the city.
Relationships: Himura Kenshin/Kamiya Kaoru
Comments: 10
Kudos: 71





	Nothing else but starlight

**Author's Note:**

> Not for the first time, the Kamiya dojo becomes a refuge for wayward assassins.

Stopping the explosion had been… tiring.

Exhaustion was a fog that hazed over his vision and dragged at his limbs as he moved. If it hadn’t been for Yin he probably would have collapsed at the Gate, without the will to force himself onwards. As it was he moved through Tokyo like a wounded feral animal, and he suspected it was only the chaos surrounding the incident that had allowed them to escape unfollowed.

The physical exhaustion wasn’t even half of it. Bai was dead, was gone for certain now, gone forever. He had made himself a monster for her sake, to protect her, and she had died anyway. She had died for him, and he didn’t know how to feel about that.

He didn’t really know how to feel about anything, although, truth be told that wasn’t something new. There were reasons he’d believed he’d become a contractor. He’d been so very numb for so long, since heaven’s gate, or perhaps even before that. Probably he started losing himself the day Xing became a contractor.

Now though, now the truth had become clear, he wasn’t a contractor after all, and he couldn’t blame any of his sins on the Gates. Everything he did, everything he’d become, was a result of his own choices only. He was human, and he was a monster anyway, and Bai was deaddeaddead, and he didn’t know whether any of it was worth it.

Yin’s hand in his was an anchor, the only solid thing in a world shaken to its roots. She had _screamed_ for him, screamed for him not to leave her alone, and so he couldn’t pass out yet, not yet, not until he could at least find some kind of shelter. She needed him, and as long as someone needed him he could keep it together. It was enough, it was everything.

Yin’s hand was in his and he couldn’t leave her, but darkness was creeping in at the edges of his vision, and they _needed_ to find somewhere to hide. Yin’s hand was in his, and the chaos around the gate might have been enough to cover their escape for the moment, but he knew better than to trust that would last. They needed shelter.

They ended up huddled in an alley behind a cluster of bins, and Hei knew it was a poor hiding place but it would have to be enough because he could go no further. Please let it be enough.

He could feel Yin shaking beside him as the darkness overtook him.

…

A part of him was surprised when he woke up. He’d half expected to be killed in his sleep, and it was only the fact that Yin needed him that kept him from welcoming the thought.

It was even more of a surprise that he didn’t wake to the cold damp of the abandoned alleyway where he’d laid down to sleep, nor yet to the harsh lights of the interrogation room that any number of his enemies might have dragged him to. Instead he opened his eyes to Yin sitting by his bedside. He opened his eyes and saw clean sheets, and fresh bandages, and his knives close to hand, and an old woman entering the room with a tray of breakfast.

In some ways, the bright lit home he had woken to was more terrifying than any alleyway or interrogation room could ever have been. The unexpectedness of it, the unfamiliarity was enough to set his heart pounding.

Despite himself he found his stomach growling, he was hungry, he was always hungry and the food smelled good. But as the old lady crossed the room he couldn’t help but note the easy confidence of her movement, the muscles under worn skin that spoke of a lifetime of skill with the sword, the calm assessment in clear blue eyes as she looked him over. She might be old, but this woman was no harmless civilian. If she wasn’t a threat it was because she chose not to be.

He tensed as she came closer, poised ready to fight, to escape if he needed to, but she just gave him a fiercely unimpressed look.

“If we wanted you dead, would we really have bothered bringing you home with us and bandaging you up?” She snapped, and there was something comforting in her flash of temper, bright and fiery, but not even a little bit cruel.

“I’m sure you have good reasons to be paranoid.” She continued “But if you try and get up now you are more likely than not to just fall right over again, and then we’d be back to having to drag you to bed again, which is really not considerate behaviour for a guest. It doesn’t matter how paranoid you’re feeling you aren’t going to get very far until you’ve recovered a bit.” She shook a pair of chopsticks under his nose for emphasis, before shoving a morsel of food into his mouth and Hei blinked, instinctively falling back on the Li persona.

“I’m very sorry.” He said sheepishly. “It’s just that I don’t quite know how I got here, and this is all a little confusing. I don’t mean to impose.” The old lady rapped him sharply on the nose with the chopsticks.

“And you can stop that too. I’m a hundred years too old to be falling for the innocent lost assassin look.” Hei tensed again and she rolled her eyes, and fed him some more of the rice she had brought. “Don’t worry, no-one here will turn you in. You’re far from the first stray to take shelter here.”

“And where is here?” He asked, less carefully innocent than Li would have been, but not quite the cold of Hei the contractor either.

“You’re in the Kamiya dojo, on the outskirts of Tokyo. I’m Kamiya Kaoru, in case you were wondering. I don’t suppose you have a name you’d be willing to give me do you.” She said, with a considering look that said clearer than words that she wasn’t holding her breath for a real name.

Hei might have continued the conversation, but a fresh wave of exhaustion washed over him, and despite his concerns, about this place, and his host, how much she knew, and why she seemed so unshaken by what she did know, he couldn’t keep from drifting back into sleep.

…

He woke again to darkness, and immediately registered the absence of Yin. Before he could react to that though, a voice cut through the silence, soft but clear.

“My wife has taken your friend to get cleaned up that she has. You shouldn’t move.” Hei turned his face to see a tiny old man sitting in the corner of the room, back braced against the wall, and sword laid down beside him. On the surface he seemed completely harmless, not a hint of threat in his body language.

Hei found himself absolutely certain that this man was about as harmless as Li Shenshun had been. He’d spent far too much time playing the innocent himself to let somebody else put him off guard playing harmless, not when he could see the strength in sword callused hands, the precision in deliberately non-threatening movements, the predator behind gentle violet eyes.

“Who are you?” He asked, cautious, but not hostile.

“This one is Kamiya Kenshin, that I am.” The old man smiled pleasantly. “Just a humble teacher.” Hei raised an eyebrow in disbelief, but Kenshin just blinked innocently. “What would you like us to call you?” He asked, and Hei… wasn’t sure how to answer.

Li Shenshun was probably wanted dead or alive by an even dozen separate organisations by now. In fact, any ID he’d used under the syndicate was probably burned. He could come up with a lie. Fabricate a new name and build an identity around it but... the thought was exhausting and Hei was so very tired. He could use Tian, perhaps, but that felt too true and too much of a lie all at once. He wasn’t Tian any more, he’d seen and done far too much to be that innocent boy again, and yet, there was too much history in the name for him to ever use it as a simple alias.

“Hei” He said instead. “I’m Hei.” It was as close to honest truth as any answer he could give, and that, in itself was more than a little terrifying.

The old man, Kenshin, who Hei was almost certain was an assassin, just nodded in acknowledgement before leaving the room, allowing Hei to give in to the darkness again, now that the threat was out of immediate range. He was pretty sure that had been deliberate; he wasn’t sure whether to feel grateful for the consideration or concern at being so easily read.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about this crossover for a while. Originally it was meant to be a oneshot, but that didn't happen, so here we are, yet another multi chapter fic.  
> Just, I really think Kenshin and Hei would have a Lot to talk about.  
> And yes, Kenshin and Kaoru are both super old in this fic and are actually from their canon dates of birth, because handwavy swordsmen live longer because of mystic energy for the sake of plot convenience. So they're over a hundred but look more like sixty or seventy, and are still absolutely terrifying in the way of all old people from martial arts films.  
> Neither Kenshin nor Kaoru is a contractor btw.


End file.
